Sweet!

I guess it's only right that I let you know it is 53 degrees at 7:30pm(that is warm). If I am going to complain about the cold weather, I should tell you it has been really nice for the past two days. It has been in the 60's. River was getting excited. When we were outside he looked around and with a huge smile on his face said,

"I'm not wearing my jacket.
All the snow is melted.
And it's not windy."
I told him not to get to excited because it would probably snow again.
I asked Ezra how recess was and he told me that it was too hot. He said that he had just gotten use to being cold and he didn't like being hot.(That is when I roll my eyes as he leaves the room)
I know everyone in AZ is hating the hot weather and having to turn on the AC in March, but that's just the way it goes when you don't even turn on the heater until December.

Guess

what

time

it

is?

If you guessed mustache March then you are correct.
I will say that Joe's mustache has significantly improved from last year and it is only the third day of March. He keeps threatening me that he is going to keep it after March is over. I just tell him that I'll shave it while he is sleeping.

If you don't know what mustache March is then you are lucky. Mustache March is a
tradition in some squadrons in the Air Force, I think it is mostly the one with flyers. Lucky for me the new squadron that Joe is in participates. Basically all the guys at work grow a mustache. Then at the end of the month they give out mustache awards. If you choose not to participate you have to pay $2 a day for the whole month. That equals $62.00. Plus everyone gives you a hard time if you don't do it, there is a lot peer pressure involved.

In other Lasura news.

Have you met River?
He is our little thumb sucker. It has been going on for a while now.

He started real early.

No matter where he went he always had his thumb with him.

Notice the thumb in the mouth.

Even while enjoying a meal, he had his thumb in his mouth.

Relaxing in Grandma's bed watching a show, thumb in the mouth.

Taking a nap on the couch, last month. Thumb in the mouth.

So what do you think happened when Joe and I put this stuff that was recommended by our dentist on both of River's thumb nails?

First we heard a lot of spitting and mad grunts, followed by a lot of mad grunts and spitting because this stuff tastes really, really, really bad.

So at night when he would usually suck his thumb he started doing crazy stuff. Things like taking his safety scissors to bed with him and cutting his own hair.

This is the after picture. We had to buzz it all off.
He also thought it would be a good idea to take a pen to bed with him. He took his pillow case off and wrote all over his pillow. Then he took the pen and wrote all over himself, all over his legs, all over his arms, all over his belly.
It was tough for Ezra too. Since River didn't have his thumb in his mouth to go to sleep he was more than ready for conversation. Poor Ezra would come into our bedroom so frustrated, "River will not stop talking to me and I can't go to sleep."

I guess he really missed it. He was a bit of a crazy child for a while.

It has been about 3 weeks and thing are pretty much back to normal.
River is thumb-free and happy and so are we.

The kids have been mostly healthy this winter. Ezra had a bit of a sore throat, but that was about it. Cora decided it was time to change things up. She got sick on the Friday of Joe's 4 day weekend. How rude is that? It was pretty sad. She was miserable and not herself.

It took her a while to get back to her cute self. She was good for about a week. The she got the cutest little cough. Then she started wheezing, it wasn't as cute.

Now she is getting breathing treatments every 4 hours. We've got a good system. She sits in her high chair and watches Baby Einsteins on the portable dvd player, while I sit at the table holding the breathing tube up to her face and read a magazine. I hope she starts feeling better soon.

Okay, do you remember how I wanted to have a party at my parents house next time we were in AZ and everyone was invited? I asked my mom if I could have a party at her house and invite all of my friends. She said that I could have the biggest party that I wanted. Then she added because she knew I didn't have any friends. =( I told her that I have lots of friends now because of blogging and facebook.
Anyway we are going to be in AZ in June. I was thinking of having the party the last week in June. I wasn't sure what day. Should we do it on a weeknight or a weekend night? Jodi do you think you can come in June? Any of my other AZ friends that live in other places, it would be so fun if you could make it. Alex and Amy, if you tell me someone is getting married the last week in June I will start to think that you don't want to be my friend anymore. I just think it would be so fun to see everyone again. Let me know what you guys think, and seriously prove to my mom that I do have friends =).

What's blogging?

Okay, so I know it has been a while since I posted.
But do you know what sounds good right now?
110.
That's right 110.
110 degrees Fahrenheit.
Hot and dry 110.
Not the hot like when we were in Alabama and we wanted to die when it got over 85°. I'm talking about the kind of heat that bakes, not steams, you.
You know the kind of heat that feels like a blow dryer?
Or the kind of heat that makes you think you're in an oven?
Doesn't that sound good?

It sounds good to me.
Maybe I have been out of AZ too long and I can't remember what it is really like.
I can tell you that the other day when it was 43° I thought to myself, so this is what "crisp" feels like. They say it on the weather here all of the time.
It was cold, not "bitterly" cold they say that too, but cold enough to make you feel alive.
I kind of like crisp. I have come to the conclusion I can handle the cold, but only the kind of cold for sissies or newbies to the cold. I really don't like it when it gets near freezing. I am having a hard time grasping the concept of 30° (or colder) being the high for the day. I mean seriously? If I took my food out of the freezer and let it sit on my porch all day, it would still be frozen!
Don't even get me started on the wind here in Cheyenne. If you don't know, it's really windy here. I mean seriously windy. Like so windy we had to write our house number on our garbage can so when it blows down the street every week after being emptied we can figure out which one is ours. So windy that when the wind goes through our windows it sounds like our house it should be on an episode of Scooby-Doo. So windy that the boys start crying when I tell them it is going to be a windy day. It's mostly Ezra, because he has to play outside at recess and walk to and from the bus stop.
Oh by the way, I forgot to tell you that I was about to go on another weather rant.
Sorry.

So, what have we been up to?

Well.....it snowed.

Here is Joe doing his manly shoveling duty.
Isn't he cute?

The van covered in snow. It was pretty deep.

I didn't take this pic. I'm guessing it was Joe, he was pretty proud of the job he did on the walkway. It is pretty impressive.

He also likes to take a picture of the bed of his truck to see how much snow there really is.

That is pretty much what has been going on here.

Here are the events of the last few months.

We had a wonderful Christmas. Last year we started the tradition of leaving tacos for Santa, he probably gets tired of cookies. We did it again this year and I think it's a tradition we are going to keep. I love tacos on Christmas Eve!

Notice Ezra's note, it is adorable! Try not to be jealous of Santa's tacos.

The boys got enough bakugan to circle the earth a few times.

Cora got cute stuff.

Here is a list I found that Ezra wrote. It's your basic Christmas break itinerary.

• eat
• webkinz
• bakugan
• dart tag
• gator golf
• wii
• cora laughing
• news
• ds
• pet pals

Ezra has not started watching the news. It has to do with making up something you wish would happen and then reporting on it, I think.

For New Years, Amber and Alma came to visit. Yay! We had so much fun. What did we do? Mostly we ate. We cooked and ate. It was awesome. I love that they love food as much as Joe and I do. Amber and I got to have some girlie time and we even got to go on a double date(with our husbands of course)!
Here they are ringing in the New Year with some Martinelli's.

Did I mention that we cooked? Here is proof, check out the delicious home made doughnuts. I'm drooling looking at them they were so delish! Another tradition we will probably start. Home made doughnuts on New Years Day. Thanks, Amber. =)
Don't worry we ate our blackeyed peas, for good luck and our greens, for wealth in the new year. A tradition in Joe's family.

Okay, we got Rockband for Christmas. It's actually Guitar Hero World Tour, but I call it Rock Band. Anyways, River has turned into quite the Rock Star. I was not fully aware of this until he put this get up on, on his own and told me he was ready to play Guitar Hero.
-Dinosaur pajamas
-Ninja costume
-Super spiky hair, that he did himself.

He is pouting in this picture because I accidentally laughed when I figured out that the reason he was dressed like that was so he could rock out.
You should hear him do "Livin' on a Prayer" he totally rocks it. The surprise hit? LaBamba! That kid loves to rock out to LaBamba.

As I mentioned earlier it has been snowing. That keeps us inside. What do the Lasuras start doing when they get a little cooped up?
They start making animal shapes out of cheese crisps, of course. Here is a bat Ezra carefully made. He is very talented. He gets stuff like this from Joe. ;)

And I know you wanted to see a very cute picture of our Coco girl. She is such a good girl.

I have also included this picture of Ez and Cora, just because. I love how she is looking at him. She 100% loves her brothers!

What a lucky girl!
p.s. You know how Cora looks just like the boys did when they were babies? Not anymore. We pierced her ears. It was a big decision. I think it looks really cute.

Also I was tagged by Amber.
It was the 4th picture in the 4th folder.
The folder was called 2008-02. So I guess this was taken last year.
It is a picture that one of the boys took. It happens a lot. The camera is usually near the computer, because I leave it there after I upload pictures.
It's a picture of the desk, cutting mat, a bill, dvd cover and some pens. What is the orange thing? It's up for debate. Joe thinks it's a half eaten square of cheese and I think it a ripped orange post it note. We get lots of pictures like this. There will be about 7 pictures of the monitor 4 pictures of the floor and 5 pictures of the one who is not holding the camera. Good times.

"Nice" weather we're having......

"Merry Christmas and enjoy the nice weather!"
Today it was 25 degrees when I was coming out of Sam's Club. There was a man ringing the Salvation Army bell. Do you know what he said to me? That's right, "Merry Christmas and enjoy the nice weather."
It didn't really hit me until I got to my car. At first I was speechless. Then I was so upset that I started talking to myself. Cora was there, but we didn't have eye contact so I can't count it as a conversation.
Enjoy the nice weather......enjoy the nice weather? Was he serious? I was freezing my butt off. Seriously, I was in my real winter coat, not the cute one, the warm one. I had Cora bundled up in her car seat with that thing that covers the whole car seat to protect her from the elements. Just her little face shows, and there is a flap to cover her face for when its too cold for a baby's face to be outside. My hands were frozen from putting groceries away.
Enjoy the nice weather? What did he mean? Was he joking? It didn't seem like he was trying to be funny. I can't stop thinking about it.
It was seriously 25 degrees!!
I guess I really don't know what I am in for here in Cheyenne.
The lesson I learned was when there isn't wind gusts of 30-45 mph and it's not snowing that minute it means "nice weather."

So I know you got on my blog not to read my rant, but to see pictures of the kids that I should have posted over a month ago.
I know Halloween is long gone, but here are the pictures of the kids in their costumes.

We had a Bumblebee(Ezra) and an Optimus Prime(River).

Plus we had this adorable "little mermaid".

This year we got to go to Arizona for Thanksgiving. We had Thanksgiving at Joe's grandmas house. There was so much good food. Everyone was excited to meet Cora.
Here is a picture of Cora and her Great Grandma, we call her Nana.

Ezra kept asking me if he could have the turkey leg for dinner. I told him I wasn't sure because we were sharing the turkey with a lot of people this year.
Check out the picture....Ezra is eating the giant turkey leg.
It was Ezra's birthday while we were there he got to have a slumber party with his cousins. How could you not have fun when you have and endless supply of plastic cups?
Ezra and Jed were so proud of their tower. They would build it, knock it down and then build it even higher.

Whenever we go to Mesa we like to hit one or two of our favorite eating spots. This time it was YC's. Can you say delish? It was so good.
Ezra enjoying his noodles.
Here is Joe enjoying his noodles. He doesn't have time for chopsticks. The YC's must get into his belly as fast as possible.

One of the main reasons for our trip was so we could have Ezra's baptism and Cora's baby blessing with our families. It was a very special day.

Here is our family. Not the best picture, I know.
Joe and Ezra before the baptism.

Our trip was too short to see any of our friends. (Not that we don't love our families) We are planning a trip back to Mesa in August. We think it would be so fun to be able to see our friends while we are there. Usually all of our time is spent with family. So if you are going to be in AZ this summer, we want to hang with you. In fact, I'm calling it, party at Jim and Fern's this summer for our friends. Date and time to be determined closer to summer.

Okay, here is a video that maybe only I think is funny.
This is what the Lasuras do for entertainment.
Really, we think we are so hilarious.

THIS HAT IS NO LONGER A FUNNY JOKE!

Joe used to put this hat on and we would laugh. What a funny hat! It's ridiculous, I mean look at the fur. It looks like the kind of hat an Eskimo would wear.
This morning when Joe left for work he put this hat on and neither of us laughed.

We have been having unusually warm weather the past few weeks. I wouldn't really know, because I think 80 or 90 degrees in November is normal. I guess it is usually really cold and snowing by Halloween. We have had some really cold days and some flurries (that's what you call snow that is really lite and doesn't stick, it's like what sprinkles are for rain, but for snow), but last night it really snowed.

Joe and I were so excited! We were like two little kids. We went outside in our pajamas. I'm not sure why, but none of the neighbors came outside to see the snow at 11pm.
Last night the snow was very magical.

Here I am in my pajamas and my "real coat" it's wool. The lady at the grocery store told me that it would not be warm enough, because of how windy it is in Cheyenne. Then she pulled her coat out from under her register and made me try it on. It was very weird.

On the subject of coats, last week I was looking for snow jackets online. They were on sale and I told Joe to pick one out, so he would have a coat for winter. He told me that he didn't need one, because he would be fine with what he had, and he didn't want to pay $100 for a coat. Last night after we came in from being in the snow Joe told me that $100 probably wasn't too much to pay for a warm coat.

The bed of Joe's truck was full of snow.

Ezra has been talking about the snow since we got here in August. I knew he would be so excited to see the snow. I tried to wake him up, but he is my son and no matter how hard I tried he would not wake up to see the snow.
Last night before he went to bed he told me that his throat hurt and he would probably "have to be absent" from school tomorrow. I actually believed him and I was going to take him to the doctor's office this morning. Not a chance. He was so adorable this morning looking out the window at all of the snow.

He couldn't wait to go to school. He got to wear his snow boots. He was very excited. It was cold, but he was bundled up.

Here he is off to the bus stop. Don't worry I'm not the only mom who makes her kid take the bus.

Just as he was leaving some of his friends caught up with him.

River was so excited for the snow too. I knew he was excited because he got dressed without being told and it was before 8am. He played outside and then came in covered in snow. Now we will have to get some snow pants, I think.

Here are a couple of Cora pictures. We call her Coco and you can too. She is such a good baby, she smiles a lot.

Last night when I was holding her she was extra cute and snugly. I had to take a picture. I mean look at those baby thighs. Who could resist those? Nobody, because she is adorable.

We were trying out her new hair bows in this one. She is cute in this picture too.
She is a big hit at our house. The boys ADORE her. It is so sweet. They talk to her and River is so into showing her how to do things. Yesterday while she was in her bouncy seat he taught her; how to snap, put socks on, put shoes on, hop on one foot and how to whistle. He is a really good big brother.
When we are in a store and the boys see anything that is girlie they always ask if we can get it for Cora. At first I used to object and tell them it was the wrong size or she was too little for whatever they were talking about.
It would go something like this:
Riv or Ez- Mom, can we get this jacket for Cora?
Me- No we can't get that it's a size 7. It won't fit her.
Riv or Ez- I mean can we get it for her when she is 7?
Me- Um, sure.
It's the same way with toys too, but now I just play along.
Riv or Ez- We should get Cora this Barbie bike, she would really like it.
Me- Yeah, she would love to have a Barbie bike.

Adorable, if I do say so myself!